Slab of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses

Satellite images show that a large hunk of Antarcticas Wilkins Ice Shelf has started to collapse in a fast-warming region of the continent, scientists said on Tuesday.

The area of collapse measured about 160 square miles 415 square km of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, according to satellite imagery from the University of Colorados National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad sheet of permanent floating ice that spans about 5,000 square miles 13,000 square km and is located on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula about 1,000 miles 1,600 km south of South America.

“Block after block of ice is just tumbling and crumbling into the ocean,” Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said in a telephone interview.

“The shelf is not just cracking off and a piece goes drifting away, but totally shattering. These kinds of events, we dont see them very often. But we want to understand them better because these are the things that lead to a complete loss of the ice shelf,” Scambos added.

Scambos said a large part of the ice shelf is now supported by only a thin strip of ice. This last “ice buttress” could collapse and about half the total ice shelf area could be lost in the next few years, Scambos added.

British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan said in a statement: “This shelf is hanging by a thread.”

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